Hi,
I am a 27 year old male and am experiencing an alarmingly high rate of hair loss. I am losing around 1000 (yes, that much) hairs a day. Each one that comes out is from me lightly pulling on my hair, and there is a small dried out piece of root attached to each hair.
When I was 16, over the course of a few months I lost a very significant amount of hair on the sides of my head just like this. It distressed me greatly, but eventually it stopped, but that hair never grew back. Because of it's location, and the fact that my hair is bright blond, no one was able to notice and I got over it. Aside from my hairline recieding about a centimeter in 10 years, I have experience no other loss up to this point.
It's noteworthy that around 10 years ago (around the same time as me), my mother experienced hair loss very similar to what I experienced- it began on the side of her head, and her hair got very thin overall in a very short amount of time. It then suddenly stopped. She looks fine though- it never got so bad that you'd notice if you met her for the first time.
Now, as of 2 months ago, this has begun over nearly my entire head, but particularly over the top. The only area that seems to be unaffected is the back of my head, but even then it's still coming out like this there (just not as much). This doesn't sound like garden variety male pattern baldness (which does run on my dads side of the family). It's really aggressive and... odd. Why the side of my head? and why the 10 year gap?
I looked online and it seems like there's two possibilities, diffuse unpatterned alopecia, or telogen effluvium. Any thoughts on what's going on, and if it's worthwhile to see a dermatologist? I have lost easily 1/2 my hair int he past 2 months and it seems like it's only getting faster. From what I read propecia doesn't seem like it's helpful. I used minoxidil last year for my beard (tried to bulk it up a bit), and I *think* it made my head hair thicker, but it could be just a placebo thing.
This is really distressing, and due to my already unstable mental conditions, I've been intermintently suicidal over it. I am graduating with a PhD this year and have been under an incredible amount of stress for years, with the past year being probably the worst. Been diagnosed with bipolar II, am medicated, and see a therapist weekly. I do wonder if high stress set this off, but it fits what happened when I was a teenager.
Thanks!
I am a 27 year old male and am experiencing an alarmingly high rate of hair loss. I am losing around 1000 (yes, that much) hairs a day. Each one that comes out is from me lightly pulling on my hair, and there is a small dried out piece of root attached to each hair.
When I was 16, over the course of a few months I lost a very significant amount of hair on the sides of my head just like this. It distressed me greatly, but eventually it stopped, but that hair never grew back. Because of it's location, and the fact that my hair is bright blond, no one was able to notice and I got over it. Aside from my hairline recieding about a centimeter in 10 years, I have experience no other loss up to this point.
It's noteworthy that around 10 years ago (around the same time as me), my mother experienced hair loss very similar to what I experienced- it began on the side of her head, and her hair got very thin overall in a very short amount of time. It then suddenly stopped. She looks fine though- it never got so bad that you'd notice if you met her for the first time.
Now, as of 2 months ago, this has begun over nearly my entire head, but particularly over the top. The only area that seems to be unaffected is the back of my head, but even then it's still coming out like this there (just not as much). This doesn't sound like garden variety male pattern baldness (which does run on my dads side of the family). It's really aggressive and... odd. Why the side of my head? and why the 10 year gap?
I looked online and it seems like there's two possibilities, diffuse unpatterned alopecia, or telogen effluvium. Any thoughts on what's going on, and if it's worthwhile to see a dermatologist? I have lost easily 1/2 my hair int he past 2 months and it seems like it's only getting faster. From what I read propecia doesn't seem like it's helpful. I used minoxidil last year for my beard (tried to bulk it up a bit), and I *think* it made my head hair thicker, but it could be just a placebo thing.
This is really distressing, and due to my already unstable mental conditions, I've been intermintently suicidal over it. I am graduating with a PhD this year and have been under an incredible amount of stress for years, with the past year being probably the worst. Been diagnosed with bipolar II, am medicated, and see a therapist weekly. I do wonder if high stress set this off, but it fits what happened when I was a teenager.
Thanks!